Addicts vow to quit habit

By ZACHERY PER
SCORES of drug addicts, including young girls, have vowed to quit marijuana in support of Operation Stopim Drug in Lufa district, Eastern Highlands.
Those involved in the programme are mainly youths from Kepafina village in the Yagaria local level government who admitted they had been “kept in captivity” by the illicit drug for many years.
They admitted that they would get nothing good out of marijuana.
Operation Stopim Drug chairman Steven Kofikae said the aim of the operation was to stop youths from smoking marijuana because they were smoking more than their elders.
“The more they smoke, the more disorderly and violent they become as their mental capacity can no longer cope with their environment,” he said.
“That is why mentally-disturbed people whom we call ‘drug bodies’ are ending up on the streets of urban centres,” Kofikae said.
He said drug addicts were used by some people to do heavy manual work but the addicts were never recognised when it came to sharing the benefits of the hard work.
“I initiated the operation to rescue young people whose lives are being guided and influenced by drugs,” he said.
Kofikae, who smoked marijuana for 12 years from 1992 to 2011, urged government and private organisations to help the operation.
Eastern Highlands is known for the cultivation, sale and smoking of marijuana in almost all its eight districts.
Lufa police and church leaders who witnessed the surrender commended the youths.
Kepafina community leader Andrew Koure said the initiative should be supported because it was the only way to rescue the young people who were being spoilt by marijuana.
“If the initiative is not supported, communities will lose many energetic young men and women to drugs,” Koure said.
He commended Kofikae and his group members for spearheading the operation in Lufa district.